What is it like to fly through the eye of a hurricane?

The news.FIU.edu team caught up with Hugh Willoughby a few weeks ago to interview him for the Worlds Ahead Web site. His short profile video will launch with the site soon, but we thought that his description of flying through the eye of a hurricane was a great piece to share on its own.

Willoughby has flown more than 400 missions into the eye of storms as a meteorologist for the federal government. His passion for meteorology stems from his days flying hurricane reconnaissance missions for the Navy.

Willoughby is a distinguished research professor in the Department of Earth & Environment at FIU, where he teaches meteorology in the recently established atmospheric sciences track. His hurricane-research interests include the analysis of aircraft observations, formulation of theoretical models of motion and intensification and the analysis of economic and human impacts.